Juho Kusti Paasikivi ([ˈjuho ˈkusti ˈpɑːsikiʋi]; November 27, 1870 – December 14, 1956) was the seventh President of Finland (1946–1956). Representing the Finnish Party and the National Coalition Party, he also served as Prime Minister of Finland (1918 and 1944–1946), and was generally an influential figure in Finnish economics and politics for over fifty years. He is particularly remembered as a main architect of Finland's foreign policy after the Second World War.

He was born as Johan Gustaf Hellsten in 1870 at Hämeenkoski in Päijänne Tavastia in Southern Finland, the son of August Hellsten, a merchant, and Karolina Wilhelmina Selin. He Finnicized his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi in 1885.

Paasikivi was orphaned at the age of 14 and was raised by his aunt. The young Paasikivi was an enthusiastic athlete and gymnast. He received most of his elementary education in Hämeenlinna, where he exhibited an early appetite for reading, and was the best pupil in his class. He entered the University of Helsinki in 1890, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 1892, and as a lawyer in 1897. That year he married his first wife, Anna Matilda Forsman (1869–1931). They had four children, Annikki (1898–1950), Wellamo (1900–1966), Juhani (1901–1942), and Varma (1903–1941). In 1901, Paasikivi became a Doctor of Law, and was associate professor of Administrative Law at Helsinki University 1902-1903.

Urho Kaleva Kekkonen (Finnish pronunciation: [urhɔ kɑlɛʋɑ kekːɔnɛn] ( listen); 3 September 1900 - 31 August 1986), was a Finnish politician who served as Prime Minister of Finland (1950–1953, 1954–1956) and later as the eighth and longest-serving President of Finland (1956–1982). Kekkonen continued the “active neutrality” policy of his predecessor President Juho Kusti Paasikivi, a doctrine which came to be known as the “Paasikivi–Kekkonen line”. Under it, Finland retained its independence while being able to trade with both NATO members and those of the Warsaw Pact.

The son of Juho Kekkonen and Emilia Pylvänäinen, Kekkonen was born in Pielavesi, in the Savo region of Finland and spent his childhood in Kainuu. His family were farmers (though not poor tenant farmers, as some of his supporters later claimed). His father was originally a farm-hand and forestry worker who rose to become a forestry manager and stock agent at Halla Ltd. Claims made that Kekkonen's family had lived in a rudimentary farmhouse with no chimney were later proved to be false—a photograph of Kekkonen's childhood home had been retouched to remove the chimney. His school years did not go smoothly. During the Finnish Civil War, Kekkonen fought for the White Guard (Kajaani chapter), fighting in Kuopio, Varkaus, Mouhu and Viipuri, and taking part in mop-up operations, including leading a firing squad in Hamina. He later admitted to having killed a man in battle, but wrote in his memoirs that he was randomly selected by his company commander to follow a squad escorting ten prisoners, where the squad turned out to be a firing squad, and then to give the actual order to aim and fire.

The Finnish mezzo-soprano Lilli Paasikivi is principal soloist of the Finnish National Opera.

Her roles have included Marguerite (in Opera North's La damnation de Faust ) and Octavian (in Der Rosenkavalier). She has also performed as Fricka in Das Rheingold with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle. In 2007, she performed as Ariel in Sibelius's incidental music to The Tempest at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in the 42nd BBC Prom. In April 2008, she performed Ernest Chausson's Poème de l'amour et de la mer with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In November 2008, she sang Elgar's Sea Pictures and The Dream of Gerontius with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Paavo Tapio Lipponen ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 23 April 1941) is a Finnish politician and former reporter. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1995 to 2003, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Finland from 1993 to 2005. He also served as Speaker of the Parliament of Finland from 2003–2007 and was his party's nominee in the 2012 Finnish presidential election but received only 6.7% of the votes, making it the biggest defeat the Social Democratic Party has ever had in Finnish Presidential elections.

Lipponen was born in Turtola (subsequently renamed Pello), son of Orvo Lipponen and his wife Hilkka Iisalo. Paavo's maternal grandparents were Jaakko Antero Ingman/Iisalo (a distant relative of Count Adolf Fredrik Munck af Fulkila and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim) and his wife Siiri Törnroos. Paavo Lipponen spent his childhood and youth in Kuopio.

Receiving his gymnasium diploma from the Lyceum of Kuopio in 1959, he then studied philosophy and literature at Dartmouth College for one year.